jazz
The Jazz Loft Project
A new exhibition at the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts offers insights into the midnight ramblings of some of the greatest jazz musicians ever, including Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Zoot Sims, Charles Mingus and Roy Haynes, who were all recorded and photographed by Eugene Smith, as they jammed after hours at his loft.
Pat Metheny’s Orchestrion
Metheny is not even playing his guitar. He stands at the back with a grin on his face, ginger curls tumbling out of a backwards New York Yankees cap. Although he’s 55-years-old, he looks like a little kid, lost in his favourite hobby.
Herbie rides again
As a Nichiren Buddhist, Herbie Hancock starts and ends each day with an invocation of the mystic law of cause and effect. He sits facing a sacred scroll, rings a bell, recites two chapters of the Lotus Sutra and chants nam-myoho-renge-kyo – meaning that in life there are threads unseen and every action has consequences. His cadence is a calming, measured monotone you could set your watch or tune your piano by.
Ornette Coleman’s ideas
“The idea is immortal, it is without class and it doesn’t care anything about wealth,” he says. ” I could get my horn and play for you, and believe me, I would play something.”
